Durga, Whose Name Means "Invincible"

This is the satisfaction of a self-actualized goddess.

"I am the Queen, the gatherer-up of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship ... through me alone all eat the food that feeds them - each man who sees, breathes, hears the word outspoken; they know it not, but yet they dwell beside me. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it..." (Rig Veda)

     The Hindu tradition is rich, ancient, and full of complex characters and ideas, further complicated by all the fractionation typical of a major world religion that has existed in a recognizable form for over three thousand years. But from these admittedly murky waters arise a myriad of beautiful ephemera, crystallized here and there by the weight of belief and the efforts of modern scholarship into particular images of divinity. One such image is Durga, the invincible warrior-mother celebrated in Shaktism as "equated with the concept of ultimate reality called Brahman" ("Durga").

     Durga is a celestial mother goddess, but her aspect is reflective of the mother's role of protection rather than genesis; she is traditionally shown riding a lion or a tiger, heavily armed with the weapons of the male deities who call her forth in her most significant appearance, battle with the asura or demon Mahisa ("Durga"). It is the nature of this calling and this battle that make Durga especially interesting as a mythological warrior woman, however. According to the Devi Mahatmya, a religious text that immortalizes Durga's arrival and deeds, a powerful demon - Mahisa - performed a great act of religious reverence that we might think of as an oblation or a pilgrimage. In Hinduism, even demons are capable of receiving the benefit of miracles and divine blessings should they undergo and conquer such spiritual trials, and for his efforts Mahisa is awarded a near-total invulnerability. So blessed, he proceeds forth to ravage the cosmos, conquering everywhere and defeating all the gods who come to oppose him and protect their domains. At last the many gods gather and perform a ritual to summon the triatic head deities of the Hindu pantheon, the forces of preservation, destruction, and creation - Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, respectively, who are responsible for creating and ordering the universe.

     Brahma is actually the deity who granted the demon his power, and yet even these three are unable to oppose Mahisa, so mighty has he become. In desperation, they perform a ritual of their own, a mysterious call to an entity identified first in the Devi Mahatmya as a goddess called Ambika. It is important to note that traditions differ on the nature of this ritual: it is sometimes an act of creation and sometimes a summoning, its intended interpretation as vague as the exact origin of the pre-Vedic goddess ("Durga"). The male deities surrender their weapons to her, entrusting her to fight the demon on their behalf, and what follows is one of the great epic battles of the Hindu tradition.

    As chronicled across the "Middle Episode" of the Devi Mahatmya, Ambika fights the demon through multiple forms and manifestations, slaying its army, summoning her own avatars to join her in battle, and when the demon seeks to defeat her by enchanting its own blood to create a new demon with every drop spilled, she thwarts it by drinking its blood so quickly that not a drop touches the ground as they battle. When she calls out eight of her Matrikas - avatar-goddesses born of her essence - to challenge the demon and burns through the last of his reinforcements, he accuses her of dishonorable tactics...so she inhales her Matrikas and proceeds to face Mahisa alone.

In the end, the demon is broken, and her most celebrated artistic memorial is this moment of victory - the demon lays impaled beneath her and torn at by her great familiar feline, soon thereafter beheaded by the scythe she wields and slain forever. Ambika becomes Durga, whose name means "invincible." Essential to this incredible conflict is the complexity of the battle, which occupies much of the center of the Devi Mahatmya, as the demon brought many different tactics and resources to bear, each of which is countered by Durga with perfect tranquility. Her conquest, from start to finish, is portrayed as inevitable.

    The demon that had brought the whole of the universe to its knees cannot even force her to break a sweat.

    She does what no other deity could achieve, and for this feat she is often associated with a "supreme force behind all existence" (Amazzone 79) and with Hymn 25 in the 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda, which describes a universal mother goddess who is "first of those who merit worship," who claims to "hold together all existence" (Rig Veda). Indeed, this identification with a principle that underpins all existence - specifically the cosmic energy shakti - is the source of the other deities' trust in her ("Durga") and the reason for her identification as a supreme entity in Shaktism. As a mother goddess, she "bring(s) forth the Father," (Rig Veda) sometimes described as predating all other deities, even those responsible for the shape of the world as we know it ("Durga").

    What's especially compelling about Durga is that she is so uniquely a total feminine existence - though most traditions do not assign her any children and not all name her as a wife (when she is, it is to Shiva, Lord of Destruction) she is always identified as a mother, and this motherhood is most clearly understand as the "all-devouring and all-nurturing mother" (Amazzone 74), a force that cannot be withstood, an aegis that cannot be pierced. Her children are all gods and all mortals, and her festival - a major holiday across Hindu traditions - is one that reinforces not just her prowess but her love and commitment to mankind (Amazzone 82). It is said that by this celebration she is reminded of the world, and will return to defend it against demons wherever they arise.


"I breathe a strong breath like the wind and tempest, the while I hold together all existence. Beyond this wide earth, and beyond the heavens, I have become mighty in my grandeur." (Rig Veda)

Works Cited

     Wikipedia Contributors. "Durga." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,  

               the Free Encyclopedia. 5 Nov. 2017. Web. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.

     "The Hymns of the Rig Veda." Trans. by Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1896. Sacred 
               Texts, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.
     "Devi Mahatmya." Trans. by Swami Vijñanananda, 1921.  Sacred Texts, 
               http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/index.htm. Accessed 7 Sept. 2017.
     Amazzone, Laura. "Chapter 6: Durga: Invincible Goddess of South Asia." Goddesses in 
               World Culture, Volume I. Ed. Patricia Monaghan. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2011. 71-
               84. Google Books. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.